SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo is bringing out more artillery in its patent battle with Facebook.
It is adding new allegations of intellectual property theft to its six-week-old lawsuit against Facebook. In court papers filed Friday, Yahoo Inc. says Facebook’s online social network infringes on 12 of its Internet patents, up from 10.
Yahoo also denied an allegation that it has infringed on 10 of Facebook’s patents and accused its rival of shady behavior.
Among other things, Yahoo says Facebook violated an agreement between the two companies to notify each other of possible patent infringements before filing a court claim.
“We remain perplexed by Yahoo’s erratic actions,’’ Facebook said. “We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.’’
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Yahoo questioned Facebook’s integrity in the new filing in San Francisco federal court. It said Facebook bought several patents for the purpose of counter-suing Yahoo and then guessed which Yahoo services might rely on the technologies covered by the intellectual property rights.
“Unless Facebook has unlawfully acquired Yahoo confidential business information, Facebook could not have developed a good-faith basis for many of the infringement allegations,’’ Yahoo’s lawyers wrote.
Shortly after Yahoo filed its lawsuit March 12, Facebook bought 750 patents from IBM. And on Monday, Facebook agreed to pay $550 million for 650 patents that Microsoft Corp. had just bought from AOL Inc.
Once an Internet powerhouse, Yahoo was eclipsed by online search leader Google Inc. and in recent years has been losing more traffic and advertising to Facebook. The shift has siphoned revenue from Yahoo, with impacts including 2,000 layoff notices earlier this month.
Yahoo shares gained four cents Friday to close at $15.57. The stock hasn’t traded above $20 since September 2008.
Yahoo hired a new CEO, Scott Thompson, at the start of 2012. Yahoo’s fourth CEO in less than five years, Thompson is hoping he can boost the company’s stock by getting Facebook to pay patent royalties through a settlement or court ruling. But the legal skirmish could last years.
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